Movie review – “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” (1957) ***

The silly title caused this film to become a joke on its release (and helped it to a healthy box office gross, becoming I believe the first blockbuster of the newly-formed AIP) but its actually a superior 50s horror film. The story is intelligent and treated with seriousness: Michael Landon is strong as the tormented teen who becomes a werewolf through the efforts of an unscrupulous shrink (an appropriately chilly Whit Bissell). Adults are not to be trusted in this one, whether turning people into werewolves, hassling kids, or stopping Landon from dating their daughter – no wonder teenagers loved it. The cops are mostly sympathetic – men caught in a difficult situation. Werewolf transformation and make up often bring laughs (even as recent as Wolf) but its pretty good here. The first half is better than the second – the werewolf rampage is disappointingly limited, and the character of the girlfriend underused. But it is thoughtful and well done. Mike Nichols, director of Wolf, once argued that his film would have been more popular if it had deal with vampires, since vampires strike a chord with people that werewolves don’t. I disagree, and would argue that Wolf simply misunderstood the nature of the appeal of werewolf films – namely, that they are tragedies, with a decent person turned into a killer because of circumstances beyond his control. The classic werewolf films, like The Wolf Man, An American Werewolf in London and this one, understood that. Transcript is here.